Think about it from the parent’s perspective: the safety of your toddler while you’re at a crowded amusement park is of high value.

Losing a young child must be terrifying, even if they’re found shortly after. I think the value proposition justifies the price, at least for a reasonable amount of parents.

kid wouldnt have a cell phone, just the watch.

same cost as a mid-tier smartphone, and 10/mo is for the networking features aka cellphone plan.

kid can't lose it like a cellphone since it's strapped to them, and sill gives them some basic call / text / tracking but without giving them access to the Play store, Tiktok, YT, etc.

the more i think about it the more i'm okay with the idea -- i've done the custom side-loaded android ROM for a kids phone strictly for the purposes of locking it down and it was a PITA.

OTOH now google gets to snoop on your kid 24/7 which i don't love...

The parents would be paying?